Jason Miller covers civilian agencies in the federal government with a focus on technology and acquisition. He is also an executive editor at Federal News Radio. Jason's reports can be heard Monday - Friday on the Federal Drive and In Depth.

Office of Federal Procurement Policy administrator Anne Rung has released a memo detailing a road map to create a new model for federal contracting. The administration will expand the concept of category management across the government, while also developing a cadre of IT acquisition experts and revamping the government's relationship with its vendors.

The Education Department offers a series of programs to improve employee engagement and leadership training. Quay Crowner, Education's acting deputy chief administration officer and HR director, said there is an increased emphasis across the agency to better take care of the employees.

In a proposed rule expected to be released Dec. 3, the Office of Personnel Management outlines how this new benefit will work for federal employees and retirees. OPM is accepting comments on the proposal.

The Federal Risk Authorization and Management Program will send a draft baseline standard for FISMA high systems around the government for comment in the next month. Matt Goodrich, the acting director of the FedRAMP program, said the high-impact baseline would apply only to non-classified technology systems as characterized under the Federal Information Security Management Act.

The U.S. Digital Service team is working with VA and other agencies to hire and train employees to apply the agile development approach to projects. Mikey Dickerson, USDS director, said the goal is two-fold: to create lasting agile development capacity in agencies and to ensure agencies think about citizens' needs first and foremost.

The Office of Management and Budget says PortfolioStat data is proving
the positive impact agile development is having on IT projects. The U.S. Digital Service is providing both help and training to expand the understanding and use of agile development.

Clear evidence is in: the agile software development concept is leading to more successful federal technology projects. The Office of Management and Budget issued a memo calling for modular project development in 2012, and it's been monitoring its uptake since. Lisa Schlosser is acting federal chief information officer. Mikey Dickerson is the director of the U.S. Digital Service and the deputy federal chief information officer. Haley Van Dyck is a member of the Digital Services Team. All three of them sat down with Federal News Radio Executive Editor Jason Miller to discuss the progress in using the agile concept commonly known as DevOps.

Senate committee lawmakers voted to send a manager's amendment to the Freedom of Information Act Improvement Act to the full body for consideration. The bill would require agencies to release documents more proactively.

The Government Accountability Office released its annual report showing vendors submitted 5 percent more protests in 2014 than in 2013. But the overall sustainment rate dropped significantly for the first time in five years.

Administrator Marilyn Tavenner told House Oversight and Government Reform Committee members on Nov. 14 that CMS fixed 22 technical recommendations before open enrollment began. The letter came on the cusp of yet another contentious hearing on the role of former White House CTO Todd Park in overseeing and developing the initially troubled portal.

Steph Warren, VA's CIO, said he moved money out of projects and into cybersecurity to ensure the agency gets rid of as many material weaknesses as they can. The decision to move money comes as Congress turns back up the heat on VA to correct long-standing and systemic cyber shortcomings.

The Office of Personnel Management is developing a handbook for hiring managers to better understand how the internship program works. The agency also plans to create videos and other tools for senior HR executives to navigate the program more successfully.

In this edition of "Inside the Reporter's Notebook," VA will release by Nov. 21 a request for proposals for a new commercial scheduling system and integration services for the scheduling software with its VISTA health IT system, Treasury will release a catalog of shared services early in 2015 and the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation will change the way it provides public feeds of procurement data on Nov. 21.

The Obama administration has been trying to measure and benchmark the costs and best practices of back-office functions that all agencies do. The Office of Management and Budget and the General Services Administration say it's the first step toward long-term and meaningful improvements in efficiency and effectiveness. Their efforts are starting to impress even skeptical agency managers. Federal News Radio's Executive Editor Jason Miller joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to discuss how some agencies are doing an about face when it comes to understanding the value of this benchmarking initiative.

The administration is establishing cost and quality benchmarks for administrative operations, such as human resources, finance, acquisition, and IT. After initial doubts, agencies see benefits from understanding how much they are paying for specific functions and how much others are paying for comparable jobs.

Mike Krieger, the former Army deputy CIO/G6, retired after 35 years in government. He says the move to email-as-a-service in the cloud provided the Army the roadmap to change how it looks at shared services.

The Small Business Administration received more than 200 comments about a proposed rule to eliminate the exception to how IT value-added resellers are classified as small contractors. Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), chairman of the Small Business Committee, wrote a letter to SBA asking for the rule to be retracted and improved.

Mark Doms, the Commerce Department's undersecretary for Economic Affairs, said the agency is hiring a chief data officer, setting up a Data Advisory Council and looking to private sector experts to make its information more accessible and easier to use. Commerce also is testing mapping and other tools to improve the presentation of data.